More than 1,200 shoot for "biggest school yoga session ever"

BOCA RATON — — Calling their gathering "the biggest school yoga session ever," more than 1,200 Boca Raton High School students filled their football field on Thursday to stretch, touch their toes and reach for the sky in a wave beginning at the 50-yard line.

The wave, designed to foster school spirit and show the value of the ancient practice, started midfield, spread to the end zones and returned to the center. Stefanie Gross, a guidance counselor and school yoga teacher, called out the poses, a series of eight movements that included push-ups, backbends, standing straight and resting seated on the ground.

The wave attracted two celebrities who rallied participants to perfect their Downward Dogs: Ben Nemtin and Dave Lingwood of "The Buried Life," which was on MTV for two seasons. The stars will use videos and interviews from the wave on their Facebook page and possibly for a future show.

Gross said the show creators were helping her fulfill her goal of getting yoga programs into every American high school.

"Yoga has nothing to do with religion. It's a way to move," Gross said. "For students who are stressed, it's a way to breathe and relax."

Boca High has offered a yoga elective for four years. There were 35 students in the first class; this year, there are 150 in three classes.

At the same time, interest in yoga is expanding across the country. A 2012 survey by Yoga Journal reported 8.7 percent of Americans practice yoga, up from 6.9 percent in 2008. Most practitioners are youthful, ranging in age from 18 to 44, the survey showed, while 82 percent are women.

Junior Eryka Botelho said many Boca High students thought yoga was just for girls until the yoga class made a YouTube video that showed the class included football players who talked about its benefits. Several students said the wave also changed their perceptions.

Many students said they were unfamiliar with yoga before the gathering, and some gave up mid-wave in frustration with the unfamiliar movements. Others said they were surprised by an unexpected feeling of relaxation.

"It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be," senior Anna Dolmany said. "I watched the person in front of me and caught on."

Forty-seven local yoga teachers, scattered throughout the field, volunteered to lead students unfamiliar with the poses.

"It was interesting and relaxing, and I got past the strange words," such as "chataranga," a push-up hold, said Lamar Elmore, a senior basketball player. "But it's probably not going to be my thing."

Gross said she may submit the wave to Guinness World Records, which reports only a "longest yoga chain" of 255 people performed last year in Estes Park, Colo.

"Thank you so much for helping me make one of my dreams come true," Gross told the assembled as they rested at the end. "Pura vida. Namaste."